April 10, 2008
Sherman Alexie to be keynote speaker at Literary Voices event for UW Libraries
Sherman Alexie, National Book Award-winner for Young People’s Literature for The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, will deliver the keynote speech at “Literary Voices,” an event sponsored by Friends of the UW Libraries at which guests dine at tables with authors. Literary Voices will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 19, at the UW Club.
Other authors hosting tables at the event include Tony Angell, Kit Bakke, James A. Banks and Cherry McGee Banks, Lance Bennett, William Dietrich, Paul Dorpat and Jean Sherrard, Tess Gallagher, Jack Hamann, Maria Headley, Susan Jeffords, Ruth Kirk, David Laskin, Robert Schenkkan, Alice Shorett, Shawn Wong and Robin Wright
Advance tickets, at $100 each, can be purchased by calling 206-616-8397 or e-mailing uwlibs@u.washington.edu. For more information, visit <a href=http://www.lib.washington.edu/support/literaryvoices2008.htm>here</a>.
Alexie, a Spokane/Coeur d’Alene Indian, grew up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Wash., about 50 miles northwest of Spokane. Approximately 1,100 Spokane Tribal members live there.
Born hydrocephalic, which means with water on the brain, Alexie underwent a brain operation at the age of 6 months and was not expected to survive. Alexie learned to read by age 3 and devoured novels such as John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath by age 5. He was ostracized him from his peers and was often the brunt of other kids’ jokes on the reservation.
As a teenager, after finding his mother’s name written in a textbook assigned to him at the Wellpinit school, Alexie made a conscious decision to attend high school off the reservation in Reardan, Wash., about 20 miles south of Wellpinit, where he knew he would get a better education. At Reardan High he was the only Indian, except for the school mascot. There he excelled academically and became a star player on the basketball team.
In 1985 Alexie graduated and went on to attend Gonzaga University in Spokane on scholarship. After two years at Gonzaga, he transferred to Washington State University in Pullman.
Encouraged by poetry teacher Alex Kuo, Alexie excelled at writing and realized he’d found his new path. Shortly after graduating WSU with a BA in American Studies, he received the Washington State Arts Commission Poetry Fellowship in 1991 and the National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship in 1992.
Awards and honors Alexie has received include the 2007 Western Literature Association’s Distinguished Achievement Award and the 2003 Regents’ Distinguished Alumnus Award, Washington State University’s highest honor for alumni. He holds honorary degrees from Seattle University (doctor of humanities, honoris causa – 2000) and Columbia College, Chicago (1999). He lives in Seattle with his wife and two sons.
The University Book Store will be at the event with authors’ books, which may be purchased and signed by the authors. Literary Voices is made possible with support from University of Washington Press and the UW College of Arts and Sciences. Proceeds from the dinner will support University Libraries preservation, Libraries Research Awards for Undergraduates, and collection enhancement.
